The battle reached boiling point at Hawkesbury Council’s first meeting of the year on Tuesday last week, as protesters armed with signs pleaded with councillors to vote against matters pertaining to rezoning and development investigation west of the river.

The issue worsened last week when NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell announced that the State Govern-ment would bypass councils on rezoning applications to ease Syd-ney’s housing crisis.

The State government has invited landowners to nominate land suitable for housing developments and has established a committee, run by the Premier’s Department, to assess 43 proposals from developers.

Hawkesbury Council was asked to prepare a report for the government to identify sites that could be prioritised for investigation, which was controversially passed through at council last Tuesday.

Areas identified included Grose Vale Road, North Richmond and Box Hill North.

While the submission was purely an identification process, residents and some councillors felt stronger emphasis needed to be put on the current traffic situation in North Richmond when sending back the report to the State Government.

“I’m hearing about the quality of this submission, but it’s not about the quality of the submission it’s about the big picture,” Cr Barry Calvert said.

“It’s about the ‘suburban creep’.

“Council’s residential strategy has addressed additional infrastructure needs, but not existing ones. I don’t see our residential strategy as a solution to our problems. Council should stop hiding behind it and start listening to the community.”

Members from the North Richmond and Districts Community Action Association also spoke out with concern on the matter, as did former councillor Ted Books, who pushed once again for council to consider his Driftway proposal to help ease traffic congestion.

“North Richmond residents deserve better,” Mr Books said.

“My Driftway proposal would solve all the problems west of the river and I urge council to consider it.”

Deputy Mayor Tiffany Tree moved to support council’s submission and gained the majority support of council saying she was an advocate for better housing choice in the Hawkesbury.